


fallen to ash

by breadofthewild



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/M, Female My Unit | Byleth, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer Route, Mentioned Edelgard von Hresvelg, Mentioned Jeralt Reus Eisner, My Unit | Byleth Has Emotions, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22078414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breadofthewild/pseuds/breadofthewild
Summary: "I really want my dream to come true. But I also have a second wish," Claude says, his eyes never straying away. "I want to touch the sky."It could almost sound like a joke, the way Claude says it, but Byleth knows he's being genuine. Byleth smiles then, a small one that creeps onto her lips without her noticing. Claude notices though, and he nudges his professor on the shoulder. They look at each other and grin, something so silly but also so simple in that moment that they both needed."Then I'll follow you to it," Byleth finally responds, her arms unfolding. "I'll follow you to the sky."
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Kudos: 26





	fallen to ash

**Author's Note:**

> this is based off of https://twitter.com/ExtraVirgin_OO/status/1192676096178737152 ! i kinda don't like the beginning of this but i included it anyways cause i don't give a shit but whatever this is for the claudeleth/bylaude gang

Claude was cunning, and he was also a man of many secrets.

The day Byleth laid her eyes on him for the first time, she knew what kind of boy he was. Always scheming, always plotting, always thinking. And yet, with his charismatic personality and gorgeous smile, Byleth always noticed that his smile never reached his eyes.

It was like that for a lot of months. Charming smile, light humor, easygoing demeanor.

Until the day the Imperial Army attacked.

Nobody could've expected it. Even Claude admitted never catching Edelgard's true ambitions under her smiles and laughs. Not even the students of the Black Eagle house could've expected their house leader to turn on the church. Everyone was shocked all the same, and when Edelgard finally made her advances to invade the Central Church, Claude was nothing short of conflicted.

But, like everybody else, he fought.

Even though he knew the church was hiding something.

➳

"Say, Teach, do you remember the first time we reunited after five years?"

It's a simple question, one that Claude asks with the utmost nonchalance in his voice, but his back is turned to Byleth for a reason. He didn't want her to see his brooding expression.

Byleth faces the fishing pond as she stands on the deck behind Claude. He's glancing up at the stars, like he always was, and Byleth knew that if she could see his eyes right now they would be far away. Claude was always reaching for the sky, something so limitless and infinite, but his arm could only reach so far.

"Yes. I do, actually," Byleth replies.

Claude turns around then, faces his professor with all the earnest and sincerity he can muster in one facial expression. He still looks far away, and he's still wearing that smile that never reaches his eyes, but Byleth shrugs the thought off for just a moment and stares at him.

Claude chuckles.

"I knew you would. You don't seem like the type to easily forget those kinds of things."

Byleth shrugs, folding her arms around her torso from the cold. "It was very memorable. I think anyone would remember something like that."

Claude nods then, agreeing with Byleth's statement, then turns back around to face the moon.

"Hey, how about this? Do you remember the night of the ball, during the Ethereal Moon that year?" Claude asks the sky.

It takes Byleth a few moments to respond, but she still remembers it. Clear as day, really. She's never forgotten about it once.

"Our ambitions. We wished for our ambitions to come true."

"I never expect anything less from you, Teach."

Claude is still staring at the sky, and Byleth takes this moment to step closer to him. Finally, she is right beside him, all the way on the edge of the dock. Their height difference is amusing, but Byleth nor Claude minds it. She's staring at the water, and Claude is staring at the moon.

"I really want my dream to come true. But I also have a second wish," Claude says, his eyes never straying away. "I want to touch the sky."

It could almost sound like a joke, the way Claude says it, but Byleth knows he's being genuine. Byleth smiles then, a small one that creeps onto her lips without her noticing. Claude notices though, and he nudges his professor on the shoulder. They look at each other and grin, something so silly but also so simple in that moment that they both needed.

"Then I'll follow you to it," Byleth finally responds, her arms unfolding. "I'll follow you to the sky."

Claude laughs that hearty chuckle he always lets out when he's greatly amused. His smile is as bright as the sun, or more fittingly, the moon. He waves his hands dismissively. "No, Teach. _I'll_ follow _you_. Remember? Wherever you go. I'll be there. I wouldn't want to dream of a future without being by your side."

Byleth's smile slips ever so slightly, but she soon regains her posture and turns back to the pond. She remembers the times Claude swore to follow her wherever she went back in their academy days, but those days are over. She remembers her father then, a flickering memory of Jeralt's face, a few words he's said to Byleth before. _When you're with those brats, you always seem so happy. Perhaps it was best that we came to the monastery after all._

Byleth starts to frown, the image still stinging her heart, the absence of her father never growing any weaker. Claude notices his professor's change in emotion, and tentatively, as if he was afraid she'd pull away, he reaches out and grabs her hand in his.

Their fingers interlock. Byleth lets it.

"What will we do when this war is over?" Byleth asks quietly, but she more so asks the water than Claude. Her fingers feel numb, and she can't tell that Claude is squeezing them close to his, and in an instant she's transported back to five years ago. She's back at the academy, with every face around her beaming, all of her students smiling and laughing. She's on missions with her father, healthy and alive, and she's learning for the first time what it really means to be alive.

But she's lost that now. Everyone has. War has torn their souls and ripped their skin, leaving nothing but bones and empty memories inside.

"We move on," Claude says, his voice quiet as well. "To make the future we needed before."

"But what if—" Byleth interjects, and she stops herself before any more words can come out. She's still thinking about Jeralt, and how easily she had lost him. She thinks of the old faces she'll see, and she thinks of the students she's murdered on the battlefield all in the name of their goal. Who's to say the next one to die won't be her? She's gripping Claude's hand tighter than she ever was before.

Claude doesn't need her to finish. "We'll make it. That's a promise."

Byleth casts her eyes downward, resting on her reflection in the water. All she can see is a body and a face, and Claude isn't visible beside her. She jumps at the thought, the sudden thought that Claude could be gone in an instant just like Jeralt was, and she backs up and steps away from the edge of the dock.

"Teach?" Claude calls out softly, their fingers still linked.

She's afraid now, and in less than twenty-four hours, she will feel the same dread she felt when she saw her reflection in the water but not Claude beside her.

➳

Above his wyvern, Claude orders only one instruction: pursue Edelgard.

It's a simple order, but one that gives everyone a second runover in their heads. What happens once they find Edelgard? Kill her, spare her? Interrogate her? What if they _don't_ find her? And there's that issue with an ominous third army as well. On this cold, rainy day, the Golden Deer set out on their expedition to eliminate the instigators of this five year-long war, and on this day, Byleth loses sight of Claude in the sky.

She tells herself not to worry. Claude wouldn't go down so easily, not when he's as determined as the rest of them to find the Emperor, but a bad feeling never leaves Byleth's gut. The low visibility from the rain and the thundering skies above set about a bad setting for a battle, but Byleth knew she had to push through. It was her duty. Her job. She had to protect her students no matter the cost, even if they weren't her students anymore.

They would fight for hours. Soldier after soldier, knight after knight, all of them would be slaughtered by the hands that wield the Sword of the Creator. Its orange hue would light the way for Byleth to find what she was looking for, first Claude, and then Edelgard. She knew Claude wouldn't approve of her priorities, but she couldn't help it. She knew she couldn't always fight by his side, she knew they'd be separated at one point. But that still never stopped her legs from running towards the darkness, only a blade to cut through the darkness.

A slow panic was looming over her. It was a foreign feeling, something she's never felt before, and she's confused by it. She slays her enemies without a hint of emotion on her face, but deep within her non-beating heart, she's worried about the gut-wrenching feeling she's got. They call her the Ashen Demon, but Byleth has never felt anything short of human even if she didn't know how to properly express her emotions.

She never forgot the faces she's killed.

But most of all, she can't seem to shake the unnerving feeling that something is wrong, and something bad will happen on this battlefield.

She has two goals. Find Claude. Kill Edelgard.

Find Claude.

The sky has cleared up. The Imperial Army has retreated, but Byleth didn't know who was the one that made Edelgard force the order. She hadn't happened upon her at all, and now that the sun was shining on them, she could see how much of a mess she'd become. The rain had drenched her clothes, making her smell of dampness, and a bit of her cloak had been tatterered.

Still, she trudged on.

Find Claude.

The battlefield was littered with corpses, some bearing the Imperial emblem, some bearing the Alliance's. Many laid in heaps, kicked around after they had been killed off by one or the other, trampled over by horses and pegasuses alike. The sight pained Byleth's heart, even though she's seen this picture a million times.

She realizes the sight hurts her more because of the fact that she's grown so used to it.

In the distance, she sees a wyvern. It's sprawled out across the ground, and as she squints, she can make out the little flecks of red splattered across its scales. Before she can register what's happening, Byleth bolts. She's not sure what was making her run so fast, or why she reacted this way, since lots of soldiers rode on wyverns. But that stomach-twisting feeling was back, and she couldn't help but sprint faster. Her feet are pounding against the mud on Gronder Field, and within seconds, she's standing before a wyvern laying in a heap, its exterior pierced with dozens of arrows.

The wyvern's flesh is tainted red. The blood seeps into the soil, dirtying the earth, and the wyvern takes one last labored breath before Byleth sees the life leave its eyes. She doesn't notice it at first, but laid upon the opposite side of the wyvern's body is a person covered in crimson, a rider who had fallen out of the sky alongside their companion.

She sees a flash of yellow.

Byleth takes a few steps forward, tentatively, gingerly. Her boots are sinking into the mud, grabbing ahold of her, telling her not to go any further. But she ignores the earth's pleas and doesn't answer when her Golden Deer are calling for their professor, and when she reaches the other side of the wyvern and lays her eyes upon the person she's found, her heart only drops.

Claude is laying before her, his eyes empty but looking skyward. They were always looking up, at the stars, at the sky, at dreams he always wished to reach. Claude was always reaching for something so far in the distance. Even in his last moments.

Byleth collapses to her knees. The world feels heavy on her soldiers, and the blood has stained her feet. She feels her chest rise and fall rapidly, and she suddenly feels like she can't breathe. There's air all around her, but it's all a bloodied oxygen that's been pulled from the lives she's stolen.

When they first met, Byleth could see Claude's charm. He was cunning, mischievous, and ridiculously charismatic. But it was also the day Byleth noticed that Claude's smiles never reached his eyes, and now that she can see the empty look he bears, his lips parted ever so slightly, she feels like she's going to vomit.

Her dreams, all in front of her, have died alongside Claude.

They've all fallen to ash.


End file.
